Minutemen come despite Old North Bridge re-enactment cancellation

Matt Mallio @actonbeacon

Monday

Apr 15, 2019 at 2:07 PMApr 15, 2019 at 3:14 PM

Rain may have canceled the battle re-enactment at the Old North Bridge in Concord, but area Minutemen -- as well as some of the British re-enactors -- came to celebrate the 244th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War April 15.

The yearly ceremony held at Concord's Old North Bridge may have had a smaller crowd than usual, but those there seemed to enjoy the proceedings commemorating the battle in Concord.

It was raining hard when the re-enactment was called off at 7:30 a.m., but as time moved on, the rain decreased and finally stopped in time for the annual parade. The morning was marked by Minutemen from Acton, Boxborough, Concord and other communities. Acton's company did their annual Isaac Davis march in the pouring rain, but still made it to Old North Bridge in time to fire a few musket volleys.

Miserable but exhilarating

"It was really miserable," said Capt Steve Crosby of the Acton Minutemen, who did the approximately 7-mile Isaac Davis march that morning."But at the same time, kind of exhilarating."

The Acton Minutemen, according to their website, meet up just before 6 a.m. at the Isaac Davis Homestead at 39 Hayward Road in Acton to do the yearly march, and are joined along the way by the Boxborough company. Despite the rain, Crosby said, it was important to carry on the tradition.

"Now we can say that, since 1963 we have marched the trail unbroken on Patriots' Day Monday," Crosby said.

Visitors from all over

Despite the weather, the group at the Old North Bridge was smaller than usual, but they appeared very interested. Dwight Dixon, a British re-enactor from Westford, spoke about the munitions of the time to some attendees. And not far away, re-enactor Andy Shein of Winchester spoke about his hobby of historical re-enactment to Tomo Machiayama, a visitor from Tokyo.

Today, Shein said, he was dressed in the red coat of the British army. But, as he wanted to see things from both sides, there were times when he was "on the other side of the bridge" with the Acton Minutemen.

"Whoever needs people," Shein said.

Machiayama said that he didn't know much about the Battle of Lexington and Concord.